You're Under Arrest! The Wild Ones and Lights and Siren by Kosuke Fujishima, 1997 and 1999, Dark Horse Comics
I recently got the first boxed set of the You're Under Arrest anime series, and after watching it I had the urge to dig out my YUA TPBs and re-read them. You see, a lot of what goes on in the first few episodes of the TV series is mirrored, somewhat, by what is in the comics. In one episode, Aoi Futaba helps out his friend Reiko, but in the TV show it's basketball skills used, as opposed to golf in the manga. Then there's the duel between Natsumi and Strikeman, which is really close to the original manga story, but with some differences. So I wanted to go back and get the "original" take on things again.

In case you are unaware, You're Under Arrest! was the first original manga series developed by Kosuke Fujishima, who is more famously known as the writer and artist behind Oh My Goddess! Only some of the YUA comics were ever printed for an American audience, and I remember reading somewhere that this is because Fujishima-san's art skills have improved greatly over the years, and he is rather embarrassed of his early works and won't let them be reprinted. This is unfortunate, as you definitely get the feeling you're stepping into the middle of a pre-existing story in The Wild Ones, the first TPB. This just means that you have to learn about the characters on the fly, and pick up what you can on the way. But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

The main characters in this series are Natsumi and Miyuki, two police officers in the Bokuto precinct in Tokyo. They are "assisted" in their duties by a number of other officers, notably including Ken, with whom Miyuki shares a romance (of sorts); Yoriko, the office gossip; and Aoi, a man who dresses as a woman. Seriously. This is definitely a comedy series, though with a good amount of action in it. And a lot of fancy motorcycles and hot cars, which is to be expected from Fujishima-san, considering he's a motorcycle nut himself. A number of the stories in these books revolve around Miyuki and Natsumi chasing down traffic offenders, though other stories are interspersed in there. For example, the very first story involves Natsumi getting her automobile license. There's also stories about our fearless officers combating a pervert stealing women's panties, some punks attacking people with paintball guns, and a fake police officer harassing motorists, so you get good variety.

I like these stories a lot. I really like most of the characters (Strikeman just might be my all-time favorite "idiot villain."), and each story really isn't that long. If you have a short attention span, or you just prefer shorter stories, the pacing of comics should work very well for you. As this is a modern day series set in Japan, there's a little bit of Japanese cultural stuff you'll have to deal with. A lot of it has been Americanized in the translation, though, so that shouldn't be a problem for anybody. Bottom line, these books are really fun and I can recommend them to all people who realize there is life in comics outside of superhero land.